Looking in from the outside, albeit as a former Labour member myself, two points strike me about the Labour/Unite row over the alleged attempt by the union to rig the selection of the party’s general election candidate in Falkirk.

What's the opposite of nominative determinism? Asking on behalf of Unite.

But you’d do so sotto voce. Everything would be arranged oh-so-subtly, with the minimum of fuss and bother. Because you know, and they know you know, and you know they know you know etc, that the Labour party is financially dependent on you, that they cannot possibly hope to win the next election without your support.

Unless, that is, you make it absolutely impossible for the Labour party to stay schtum any longer. And that’s what Len has done. With a carelessness bordering on suicidal recklessness he has trampled over the Labour party in such a blatant manner that no-one — and certainly not a union-hating Tory party and media — is going to let allegedly corrupt rule-breaking pass without comment. He has forced Ed Miliband to stand up to him, given him no choice in the matter.

When a leader is forced to write an article saying (in the first person) how strong they’ve been, it’s a sure sign they’ve been compelled into action from a position of weakness. But Len McCluskey has over-played his hand. Ed Miliband now has to stand up to him, he can dodge the inevitability no longer. It may not feel like it right now, Ed, but that’s luck.

Here’s the second point that strikes me:

Why does it take a political scandal to force Labour and the unions to realise they can’t go on like this?

The growing bitterness between Labour and the unions … demonstrates that the relationship, as currently configured, is not really serving the best interests of either of them. Even when Labour leaders have considerable sympathy for a union cause, they cannot ally themselves with it for fear of being portrayed as puppets of union paymasters. Even when the unions have been decisive in electing a Labour leader, they do not get the support they feel they deserve. Until the relationship is reformed, Ed Miliband and future Labour leaders will continue to astonish the unions with their ingratitude.

As it happens Andrew Rawnsley was giving Ed Miliband a bit too much credit. The Labour leader hasn’t “astonished the unions with his ingratitude”. Mostly he’s been quite pliant. But, little by little, he has edged towards irking them. Last year, it was his announcement that he backed the Coalition’s pay freeze for public sector workers. More recently, it was his concession that he would stick to the Coalition’s public spending plans if he found himself in Downing Street in 2015.

Gradually, inevitably, the formal Labour/union link will come to an end. Both sides will be happier once it does. The Labour party can reclaim itself for its own genuine supporters. The unions can lobby any and all parties to take up its members’ causes on their own merit. As Kahlil Gibran once said (and I’m sure he was anticipating just this eventuality): “If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. If they don’t, they never were.”

* Stephen was Editor (and Co-Editor) of Liberal Democrat Voice from May 2007 to Jan 2015, and writes at The Collected Stephen Tall.

If Unite had been wholly open in its dealings with the Labour Party and totally up front about its intention to support Unite members in becoming Labour MPs, then the other parties might have protested but the response would have been ‘what’s to protest about? We’ve been fully transparent and our candidate has been selected fairly and openly.’

As it is the whole matter is now toxic. Let’s please remember the overriding need for honesty and transparency in our party too.

I think we need to be careful not to fall for Mccluskeys “ordinary bloke” image, he is an experienced & crafty politician. I was surprised by the apparent clumsiness too & I wonder if it doesnt cover some “cunning plan”.
The 2 possibilities that occur to me are –
that Mccluskey knows something we dont, like Labour facing immenent bankruptcy, he has longstanding links with The Co-op Bank who are central to Labour finances
or theres been a complete change of strategy with Mccluskey & his allies setting out to break up The Labour Party & use the fragments to build a “Mass Revolutionary Party”. This is The Trotskyist strategy in its most original form, going back to the 1940s.
Either way Mccluskey is in an unbeatable position, there is nothing Milliband can do to him.

An interesting post, and I agree that Miliband has been lucky with his opponent, but this also cuts over to the Tories being lucky that they can portray Miliband in the pocket of, or at the very least unable to control Len.

Miliband had a couple of days last week to demonstrate he leads the Labour Party and he fluffed it- Len will therefore be a gift not to Miliband (as he could have been), but to Labour’s opponents at the next election. Reading the Labour blogs there seems to still be a “who cares” attitude, but if you allow mud to stick in politics it never goes away.

As to what would be best for British politics, it’s not altogether clear why organisations that now only serve as umbrella groups for insurance and legal assistance should have any right to determine candidates of a major political party more than say a banker who gave money and demanded a policy change.

I suspect the wind is changing, and the one thing Miliband could do to gain the iniatiave would be to refuse further union donations until the likes of Unite are disentangled from the politics of the Labour Party – it will happen sooner or later, so best control it.

If Len can’t see the point of this sub-Blairite Labour party which dutifully trots along behind the Tories, then he agrees with me (or me with him), but if he also thinks that he can turn Britain into a socialist state then he is wrong. Its about time the unions started looking after their members in the world as it exists instead of trying to bring in the revolution.

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